• Challenge people. Many of us have had leaders who at times seemed more like tormentors than mentors. They challenged us to do our best, and we improved and were better for it. Practice "carefrontation"—the careful and caring confrontation of others, of conclusions, of ideas. Don’t let people rest on their laurels or accomplishments, don’t do this yourself.

• Share from your own experiences. You are paid to think. You have more to share than you realize. Don’t let a paygrade (yours or someone else’s) make you weary of comment or providing input if have value to add.

• Be inspired. Look for people, ideas, environments and knowledge that you find inspiring and motivating. Don’t only look to seniors to inspire you. Attempt to inspire and motivate your team, your peers, & your seniors. This organization is boring if we all just are here to kill time and collect a paycheck.

• Read. It may not follow that all readers are leaders, but certainly all leaders are readers. Stay informed. Stay current. Stay proficient. Maintain your technical and tactical proficiency and share those books or training opportunities that you find of worth. Share knowledge.

• Tell stories. Facts tell and stories sell. They inspire, too. We learn best from parables and we all need to recount our own inspiring stories and inspire those around us.

• Be a good communicator. Be as clear as possible and combat ambiguity. What we do is convoluted, it is not complicated. Speak and write clearly so that the people you are communicating with understand what you are telling them well enough to take action on their own without you standing over their shoulder.

• Be a good example. People watch what you do more than they listen to what you say. Be someone worth emulating. Be the leader or teammate you would want your spouse or children to work with. Maintain a positive mental attitude. If you are junior, you are still an example to someone more junior and sometimes to your seniors. If you are senior, many eyes are on you.

• Care about others. People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care. Ask questions. Take a genuine interest in people. If you make people your #1 priority, they will not be your #1 problem.

• Be courteous. You can be firm without being rude, you can be punitive without being personal. You and all the people you work with are someone’s son, daughter, husband or wife etc. Being cruel because you can is one of the most egregious forms of abuse of authority.

• Don’t be afraid to fail; but hate failure. You are going to fail, multiple times … it is unavoidable. Learn how to handle it and how to learn from it and how to recover from it. Keeping that in mind, avoid failure at all costs and remember that failing to plan is planning to fail.

• Be realistic. Aspire for the impossible, be mindful of what is possible. Be mindful of what you and your team can control and what they can influence – the two are not the same.

• Be idealistic. Do not compromise your principles for convenience or to appease a senior. Tough times do not build character, tough times display character. People never go from being overtly principled to unprincipled in one leap, it is usually a series of steps. Pulling back when you are down that path can be difficult … avoid that path.